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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 14, 2011

Jim Grobe

MIKE FINN: We now welcome Wake Forest head football coach Jim Grobe. Coach, just a brief opening statement, then we'll go to questions.
COACH GROBE: Thanks, Mike. Had a good win this past Saturday against a very talented NC State team. Very well-coached team. We feel like for two weeks in a row now we've played really good football teams. Didn't get it done up at Syracuse but we made some plays down the stretch and were fortunate to beat a good football team in NC State. Now hopefully keeping our feet on the ground and getting ready for Gardner-Webb this weekend.
MIKE FINN: We'll take questions for Coach Grobe.

Q. You've had a few of your players take advantage of the graduate school transfer rule. I was wondering if I could get your opinion on the rule, if you think it's being used fairly.
COACH GROBE: Well, I think so. I think in our case when we have some kids that are getting ready to get their degree, can get their degree in four years, maybe aren't playing much football for us, I think it's great if they have an opportunity to go on and play someplace else.
It would be a little bit different if they were starters for us, wanting to go do that. But in all the cases we've had, they were kids that weren't playing as much as they wanted to here, felt like if they had a fresh start somewhere else, they'd have a chance to play. And they leave Wake Forest with a degree.
I think it's good for us because we get the kids graduated and it's good for them because they get one more chance to play another year of football.

Q. Jim, you were able to hang on and pull that one out Saturday, which was a step forward for you. Are you concerned you did have a couple times during the game a 21-point lead that melted down twice?
COACH GROBE: Yeah, no question about it. It's a concern for us. I think the nice thing was at one point we were up 21, they cut the lead, then we went back up 21. I think kids and coaches maybe have a tendency to try to be a little bit conservative, hope they don't let things slip away.
I think in our case what we've got to do is we've got to get our eyes off the scoreboard and quit feeling comfortable with the lead. We were up 15 in Syracuse and lost, then we were up 21 against NC State and ended up being a barn burner right down to the end.
From our standpoint, we got to keep trying to keep our kids realizing that at this level, with the talent of teams we're playing against, there is no comfortable lead.

Q. Also you have a big contribution from a fifth-year guy, Danny Dembry, who hasn't done a whole lot statistically up to this point in this is career. What is it like to see a guy like that come through and deliver a clutch performance for you?
COACH GROBE: Well, there's really nothing better than to see a kid when he's really not had a lot of stats up until his senior year come through and really start playing well. That's something that we expect. We want our players to play their best football when they're juniors and seniors. Once in a while it's not till their senior year. In this case, there's not a better person for it to happen to.
Danny is one of the best kids we've ever had in our program from a character standpoint. This is a feel-good story, one of the real times where a kid has paid his dues, been in the shadows most of his career, gets his chance in his fifth year to step up and be a real factor. He was just really, really good this past Saturday, played great.

Q. How is Michael Campanaro's hamstring and how tricky is that injury in being able to determine now it's able to go back full speed or we have to continue to throttle back on things?
COACH GROBE: I think Mike's hamstring is really more sore than anything else. I think he injured it pretty good back in August and had recovered for the most part from that. But my understanding is that they linger. You might be full speed but still have some pain and soreness there. That's I guess what happened to Mike on Saturday. It got tight. He was just pretty sore. They were concerned that he might actually pull it or tear it, so they decided not to let him play in the second half.
I think our trainers and doctors are hopeful that with a little bit more rest he'll get to the point where he'll be full speed and not have any more problems with it.
It's not a science. I think it varies from kid to kid. Some kids pull a hamstring and bounce back pretty quick and never look back. I think some of the kids it just lingers. I don't know why that is. I think more than anything else, there's no real science to it as much as every kid's a little bit different and some heal up quicker than others.

Q. Is that tough for you as a coach when you have a guy that's playing so well to take a preemptive step like that where it comes to an injury? It's not like he's broken something and you cannot put him on the field. This is more like we don't want to take a chance with someone.
COACH GROBE: It's tough for a coach. I jokingly tell our boosters back in the day when I was playing, about the only thing that kept you out of practice was if the bone was sticking out of the skin, then they could see that and say, Grobe, you're hurt, you can get out now.
Today the hamstring is like a sore back or the cramping that we get sometimes. Even the concussions sometimes are really hard because you can't really tell any difference. Camp was out of practice yesterday walking around. You can't tell anything's wrong with him other than if you suited him up, start having him try to run full speed, he'd have some issues.
I think when you can't actually see the injury, it makes it tougher for a coach. At the same time we have to rely on the doctors and trainers to make those decisions.
Back in the day coaches used to be involved. We don't get involved anymore. The trainers and doctors tell us when he's ready to go.

Q. Do you have a status of him when he's ready to go forward?
COACH GROBE: I think going forward, he's doubtful for this weekend. He's still got some soreness, although I think he felt pretty good yesterday. Our issue becomes practice time. I tell our players, the issue is not whether you get well and feel good by Saturday, it's whether you're able to practice and go out and play well on Saturday. Those are the two problems.
One problem you want the kid to be well and healthy. The trainers and doctors tell you when that happens. If they haven't practiced, they can't go out and perform well on Saturday. That's the other issue you run into.

Q. Jim, the other day Michael and Danny suggested when they got in the huddle, they sort of made an impromptu decision as to who was going to throw and who was going to receive that pass. How common is that when you have call a play? Is it always specifically determined who is throwing or who is catching or do the players have the freedom to make that call on the fly?
COACH GROBE: I'm glad you brought that up to me. I didn't actually realize they were having that discussion on the field. I'm going to have to talk to Lonnie Galloway about that (laughter).
It is a play actually we run with the receivers playing in different positions. About all of our receivers have thrown that pass in practice. So we do have the ability for different kids. A lot of times you have one kid that can throw the ball down the field and he's the only kid you use. We've had to before, where kids wear gloves, they have to take the glove off to throw the ball. Everybody is noticing we're getting ready to do that.
I think in this case we would like for Camp to throw the ball and Danny to go catch it. I'm glad it turned out the way it did. I don't know that we give our guys that much flexibility. They may have made that decision, but that's not typically something we do with an offensive play, to decide who runs and who throws.
MIKE FINN: I think we're out of time, coach. Thanks for being with us. Good luck this weekend.

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